Word Origin & History

able mid-14c., from O.Fr. (h)able, from L. habilis "easily handled, apt," verbal adj. from habere "to hold" (see habit). "Easy to be held," hence "fit for a purpose." The silent h- was dropped in Eng. and resisted academic attempts to restore it 16c.-17c., but some derivatives acquired it (e.g. habiliment, habilitate), via French."Able-whackets - A popular sea-game with cards, in which the loser is beaten over the palms of the hands with a handkerchief tightly twisted like a rope. Very popular with horny-fisted sailors." [Smyth, "Sailor's Word-Book," 1867]

Example Sentences for ablest

In English some of the ablest writers have employed dialect.

Even the ablest naturalist who has written about him is puzzled as to his species.

He wrote back, on the 9th November, a letter which would alone stamp him as the ablest English statesman of his day.

Among its contributors will be found our oldest and ablest writers.

Dr. Smith is one of America's ablest representatives at foreign courts.

And yet one of the ablest men of the parish had tended her own garden for years.

The first and ablest aid Mr. Webster received was from Calhoun, then second to none in his influence.

The country parish must be a parish for our ablest and strongest.

I have heard him call him one of the ablest lawyers in the country.

One of the ablest expositions of Socialism that has ever been written.